INTRODUCTION. xxi 



of which measured more than 70 feet. In the market I bought 

 a very fine Great Shrike but which I am sorry to say was in moult 

 and very stale, but I managed to make a tolerable skin of it. It 

 was too far gone to note the sex, which I am very sorry for, as it 

 had two spots on the wings, which Mr. G-ould says is peculiar to 

 the male only. On Friday we visited Waterloo, and in the church 

 of the village I was surprised to see a single Swallow hawking 

 after flies. . . . Before I left Antwerp I walked along the banks 

 of the Scheldt by the reeds, but saw nothing save a few Hooded 

 •Crows, Gulls and Lapwings. The market of Brussels contained 

 the following birds : Wigeon, Shovellers, Scaup, Teal, Pintail, 

 Spotted Redshanks and common, Greenshanks, Ruffs, Purres, Ring 

 Dotterel, Blackbirds, Thrushes, Fieldfares, Redwings, Mountain 

 Finches, Tree Sparrows, Grouse, Pheasants, Woodcocks, Partridges, 

 Jays, Green Woodpeckers, Golden and Grey Plovers, Cormorants, 

 Coots and one or two female Goldeneyes, besides a host of small 

 birds such as Sparrows, Larks, Chaffinches. . . . Before 

 leaving London 1 spent a very pleasant evening with Mr. Bond, 

 you would like him better than anyone." 



Present limits of space unluckily render it impossible to 

 quote either the remainder of Mr. Gatcombe's letters 

 to ]^Ir. Giirney, or those which his old friend and constant 

 correspondent the Rev. G. Robinson of Armagh handsomely 

 offered for the purpose of thiswork. His relative, Mr. 

 PicthaU, to whose kindness the Editor is indebted 

 for much information regarding Mr. Gatcombe, remarks 

 that Mr. Gatcombe was at no period of his life a strong 

 man. For the last nine years of his life he suffered from Vertigo 

 which would seize him in the street or in church. For six years 

 prior to his death, on the 28th of April, 1887, it caused him to 

 be perfectly deaf, which obhged him to have every word wi-itten 

 for him. But his powers of endurance, and enthusiasm in the 

 cause of Natural History, enabled him at a late period of his life 

 to continue his rambles and even to extend his ornithological 



